Other Views: Enter another player in Obamacare: the IRS

Those who are running afoul of ObamaCare, or will run afoul of it, can only pray that the designated enforcers of the reform will prove as inept as the geeks the government brought in to set up the ObamaCare website. But, the designated enforcer heretofore has been better known for its ruthless efficiency than its bumbling.

We’re talking about the outfit that nailed Al Capone. Yep, the dear, beloved IRS. How fitting that the Affordable Care Act — legislation the Supreme Court approved on the technicality that it’s a tax — should come down to being dependent on America’s tax collector!

The Washington Post reports that the IRS has been deputized to carry out some 50 different assignments regarding ObamaCare, including calculating and doling out trillions of tax dollars in subsidies for Americans who can’t afford the full price of the government-mandated coverage. (The subsidies go straight to the insurance companies, not to the patients, solving the mystery of why the insurance industry — a favorite rhetorical whipping boy of Presdent Obama — was so quick to clamber aboard his program.)

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Perhaps the IRS will be distracted from its ObamaCare enforcement tasks by the still-simmering controversy over allegations its legendary zeal in pursuit of government revenue took a partisan detour to jerk around various Tea Party groups.

“Some of the (IRS) tasks are so vital to the success of President Obama’s health-care initiative that any uncertainty about whether the IRS can do its job raises doubts about the overall endeavor,” reported the Post.